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19 thoughts on “Letter: Thanks to Wicked Weed for positive community impact”

Yup, they built a successful business. Now another company sees a way to enhance their value further and is willing to pay WW for the opportunity to do so. Good. For. Them.

Too many people floating around this ‘ville that don’t have a clue about business. But that doesn’t stop them from spouting off about it. Bottomline: envy, it’s all about envy for those types, though they won’t admitted it.

That’s a harsh and unfair judgment, in my view. As the commenter below points out, there are principles and real world issues at stake. From just last week:

Hundreds of U.S. craft brewers that had been experimenting with a selection of South African-grown hops will no longer have access to the proprietary supply after Anheuser-Busch InBev, which owns the farm, said it would reserve nearly 100 percent of the latest yield for its own brands.U.S. Craft Brewers Cut Out of South African Hop Supplyhttps://www.brewbound.com/news/u-s-craft-brewers-cut-south-african-hop-supply

You proved my point about lack of business awareness. From your link: “South Africa is not a traditional hop growing region,” ABI global hops procurement director Willy Buholzer said via a statement. “SAB’s R&D efforts made it possible to grow hops in South Africa but it is still less than 1% of the world hop acreage and production. This year, South Africa suffered from low yields.”

In other words, S. Africa is currently a NON-factor when come to hops.

Here are my valid questions to all of those who simply MUST be continually outraged about something:

1) New Belgium quite publicly stated that they would not have a tasting room b/c they didn’t want to muscle-in on all the hometown brewery taprooms. Clearly, they we’re b*llsh*tting because they jolly-well had a nice one built and it was available to the public shortly after opening. Where was the local outcry about their obvious deception? There should have been one about that IMO. I’ve mentioned it to a few locals and they all shrugged. Didn’t care.

2) Word about 1 1/2 years ago was that the whole of New Belgium was up for sale. Surprise, Asheville, who thought they were getting a privately-owned craft brewer. (All part of the long range plan, kids, just like the public tasting room was.) Now NB claims they’re not for sale but, do you buy that? I don’t. Where was the outrage when the For Sale sign went up awhile back? I didn’t hear much, did you?

3) Then we have a city council who decides it makes sense to invest a bucket of taxpayer money (what 1.5 million or so?) to buy land *in the hopes* of woo-ing another western brewery. What? That’s how taxpayer money should be spent? No. But, I’m sure Deschutes parlayed that (naive) commitment on AVL’s part VERY nicely into their negotiations with Roanoke, where they landed. Where were the loud objections to that?

You want to talk about principles, by all means, let’s talk about them. Because the protester types here don’t seem to have them. They just pile-on to whatever the latest and loudest groupthink is. They’ve made that clear countless times.

Please explain the dichotomy of the upset about WW/InBev versus my questions above.

AB InBev is buying craft breweries because craft beer is making significant impact their market share and thus their bottom line. The solution is to buy up craft breweries to stop the bleeding.

This is only one part of a multi-front attack on craft breweries by AB-InBev to regain market share, by controlling distribution, retail shelf space, and competition for tap lines in bars, restaurants and tap rooms, combined with using their immense buying power to limit the grains and hops that smaller breweries will no longer be able to obtain, as recently demonstrated by the South African hops.

The WW folks talk the talk about being a community and willing to help other breweries in the area, but will their AB InBev overlords actually permit such actions? How much of what WW is saying today is the passion that created WW, or is more along the lines of reading from the script of “corporate speak”?

In every large corporation, each division or sector is given financial goals, and if they do not meet those goals changes will be mandated.
WW will succeed, and I’m sure the owners can’t get the grin off their face when their financial statements come in the mail, but at what cost to the craft industry as a whole, and the next start-up brewery?

Wicked Week is now part and parcel of Anheuser Busch inBev… a HUGE multi-national corporation whose reach was felt most recently through the recent defeat of the Craft Brewing distribution cap legislation here in NC (to raise the 25,000 barrel cap to 200,000 barrels for self-distribution… that was 100% supported by the NC Craft Brewers Guild… the same folks who recently gave Wicked Weed the boot upon learning of their acquisition by Anheuser Busch). The campaign to defeat this antiquated legislation was orchestrated and funded by AB inBev, and successfully implemented by the NC Beer and Wine Wholesalers Association and their lobbyists…. folks like Tryon Distributing based out of Charlotte that stock the shelves at Ingles et al here in WNC…. and why you now are VERY hard pressed to find any small independent craft brewery beers at Ingles or any other grocer who is dependent on Tryon Distributing and the other large wholesalers to keep their beer shelves stocked.

Who is this “we”? Anyways, the classic tech startup model is to raise millions in venture capital, run unprofitably while gaining market share, then either sell out or have an IPO. Wicked Weed started off with millions in pimple cream money and a huge PR budget to gain national attention. It was a slick corporate operation built to flip from day one. Mission accomplished.

hummmm….. that would be SMALL independent craft brewery beers that are now non-existent/nowhere to be found on the Ingles shelves…. that category doesn’t include Highland or Hi-Wire. It’s all relative…. and therefore probably a bit too much of a differentiation to understand my point here. Try this though: Devil’s Backbone, Goose Island, Blue Point… and now Wicked Weed….. though positioned as artisan crafted and independently owned breweries on the retail grocery shelf ….. they aren’t…. they’re masquerading as such. Same goes for Oskar Blues (hedge fund owned), Lagunitas (now owned by Heineken) ….and the list goes on. That’s just the deal. Could be worse I suppose.

Yeah, I grew up in St. Louis. When we went to the store for beer, at a convenience store for example, it wasn’t unusual for there to be two brands: Busch and Budweiser. Maybe if you were someplace slightly funky there would be Pabst and Little Kings Cream Ale, but not much else.